 This video is brought to you by Givewell, an organization that's trying to make sure your charity dollars can make the most impact possible. Go to Givewell.org and enter Polyphonic at checkout to get a charitable donation matched up to $100. There are a few phrases in modern music that inspire as much consternation and confusion as Bob Dylan's Christmas Album. Ever since its 2009 release, Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart has become somewhat of a meme in music circles. It's been the subject of hand-scratching reviews, passionate defenses, and thousand-word think-pieces over the years. And it makes sense, why, right? The phrase itself almost seems incongruous. Bob Dylan is the archetype of the rebellious folk singer. He's radical and experimental, a poetic genius who trailblazed the singer-songwriter genre, sang at Martin Luther King's rallies, and became the shining star at the center of the 20th century's biggest counter-cultural movement. Christmas albums, meanwhile, are seen as the embodiment of crass consumerism. They're the last bastion of over-the-hill musicians, destined to play on repeat in shopping malls and drugstores as a twisted form of psychological torture for the employees that work there. There are some that might categorize Christmas in the Heart as exactly that, a desperate bid for attention from an old man whose star was fading. But honestly, I don't really buy that. Dylan might not have his thumb on the cultural pulse like he used to, but his late career output shows that he's still as insightful and poetic as he's ever been. And in my mind, when you look at Dylan's career as a whole, Christmas in the Heart looks a lot less like an improbability, and a lot more like an inevitability. Let's take a closer look. In the 60-odd years since Bob Dylan arrived in Greenwich Village as a folk-singing wonderkind, his career has taken no shortage of twists and turns. He's been a radical folk singer, an esoteric rock star, a country troubadour, a preaching gospel singer, a jaded old blues man, and a traditional crooner. But through all these different iterations, one thing has remained, a deep love and encyclopedic knowledge of the American musical tradition. For all his enigma and ego, Bob Dylan has always made it abundantly clear in his music that he is just part of a musical culture that is so, so much larger than any one individual. His music walks in the footsteps of nameless greats, borrowing melodic and lyrical ideas and molding them into sharp commentary about his times. That's the whole point of folk music. It's not about making something new, it's about taking something old and making it relevant once more. And Christmas songs are a huge part of the American folk tradition. In fact, they're probably one of the only places in the modern age where traditional folk songs still has a direct impact on culture. Some of the songs that Dylan sings on Christmas in the Heart date back to the 1800s, if not earlier. The first version of the hymn that Kamal Ye Faithful was based on was published in 1751, and Dylan's version is quick to remind you of that. The hymn opens by singing the first verse in its original latin. Nestled between these centuries-old folk songs are a number of songs from the 30s and 40s. These are plucked from the Great American Songbook, another sort of canon formed in the first half of the 20th century by the brilliant songwriters of Tin Pan Alley. The Great American Songbook has actually come to define much of Dylan's late career, following Christmas in the Heart, he released a number of albums full of his takes on these standards. It's as though Dylan wants to remind us that for all the great songs he's written, he's just a small piece of this tradition. Now, making a Christmas album full of traditional folk songs and Great American Songbook pieces isn't exactly unique, but what does stand out is what Dylan does with his arrangement and production of these songs. Here's a quick little side note. Dylan produced this album under the pseudonym Jack Frost, a name he's been using for production since the early 90s. I don't really have much to say about that name, but, you know, it's seasonal and I think it's pretty delightful. And Jack Frost's production is delightful too. It's lush and warm, a crisp pastiche of the golden age of traditional pop. Just listen to the soft bells and warm choir that open the album on Here Comes Santa Claus. Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, back down Santa Claus today. And what about Winter Wonderland? Winter Wonderland. And then there's the take on All Be Home for Christmas, a loving homage to Bing Crosby. I'll be home for Christmas. This is produced with the careful hand of one who has a deep reverence for the classics, or the brilliant minds that created the modern music industry. But of course, when we're talking about the arrangement and sound of this album, there's one big elephant in the room, the voice of it all. Throughout his career, Dylan's voice has been a point of constant criticism, despite him being one of the most thoughtful, versatile, and talented vocalists in popular music history. Although Dylan can't sing is an all too common refrain, but the reality is that Dylan has a distinct vocal timbre and uses it with care throughout his career, including on Christmas in the Heart. Dylan's shredded, raspy voice provides a deliberate contrast to his immaculate production. I view it as a kind of rejection of the crisp commerciality of so much Christmas music, and this commercial rejection is underlined by the fact that the proceeds of the album sales went to charity. There's so many Christmas albums out there that play these exact same songs with perfect, soulless vocals. Dylan is instead opting to inject his own distinct time-worn voice into them, reclaiming some of the greatest pieces of the American canon. Personally, I love his sly, winking delivery on Here Comes Santa Claus. The Christmas song makes me feel like a child sitting on a grandfather's knee by an open heart. It's not a technically perfect voice by any means, but it's distinct, and it makes an interesting artistic statement. And beyond any artistic statement or cultural baggage of the album, there's another reason that a Dylan Christmas album makes a lot of sense. The simple fact that Dylan likes to have fun. While people like, well, yours truly, will spend their lives decoding Dylan's cryptic messages and reading into his every action, the reality is that Dylan has a long history of just doing stuff for shits and giggles. He's an artist who had a lot of pressure put on him as a young man, and clearly found freedom and joy in subverting that. Over the years, his mischief has manifested in raunchy lyrics, absurdist interviews, and albums that defy everything people were expecting from them. Hell, in a 2019 documentary on his Rolling Thunder review tour, Dylan and director Martin Scorsese even inserted talking heads from fictionalized characters to mess with the narrative. Dylan just loves keeping people guessing. He seldom reveals his intention, and often tries to subvert expectation. And he clearly just enjoys playing fun music. On Christmas in the Heart, that's most clear in the album's raucous take on Must Be Santa, featuring David Hidalgo from Lost Lobos on accordion. When you throw away all the high-minded attempts to explain the album, this song provides the simple answer. Christmas songs can be fun, and that alone is a reason to sing them. Christmas in the Heart might not be to everyone's taste, and I'm not about to make the argument that it should be held in the same regard as Blonde on Blonde, or Blood on the Tracks, but I will maintain that Christmas in the Heart is a fun album with something to say. So if you're looking to change up your Christmas music routine this year, then maybe consider giving Bob Dylan a spin. Merry holidays everyone, see you in the new year. If you're looking to channel the holiday spirit that Bob Dylan has on Christmas in the Heart, one great thing to do is to donate to charity. But when you donate to charities, it can be hard to know just how much of an impact your dollar is having. That's what Givewell are here to help for. Givewell spent thousands of hours doing evidence-based research to find charitable organizations that have the highest impact on the greatest number of people. They publish all of their research and recommendations on their website for free, and allocate your donation to the charity or fund that you choose. Personally, I'm going to donate some money to help supply medicine to prevent malaria, which kills over 600,000 people every year. If you want to donate today, go to Givewell.org, and on the donation page when they prompt for where you heard about the organization, select YouTube, then enter my name, and they'll know that I sent you. If you've never donated to Givewell before, they'll match up to $100 of donation if you enter Polyphonic at checkout. So why not give this holiday season? And thank you all so much for watching Polyphonic this year. I'm going to take a break for the next few weeks, but I'll see you all in the new year.